Friday, August 12, 2005

"Counter Clinton" Group Nixes Plans To Build Libraries

A group that had hoped to build "Counter Clinton" libraries in Little Rock and Washington has abandoned its plans.

But if you don't like the Clintons, you can enjoy angry diatribes for a little longer on the group's web site. Seems that will go bye-bye soon, too.

The group was headed by Houston businessman Richard Erickson, but included a cast of characters whose lives revolve around their hatred of the Clintons. Those include:

-- Former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), who was a manager in Clinton's House impeachment trial

-- Dick Morris, Clinton's former strategist who resigned after revelations of an affair with a former call girl, but who has found new life as a Clinton basher on conservative television and radio shows.

-- Former FBI agent Gary Aldrich, whose fact-challenged 1997 best-seller, Unlimited Access, dredged up old rumors about the Clintons. Aldrich's book was published by Regnery Publishing, which over the years has offered a laundry list of conservative rant books.

-- NewsMax.com pundit and former Rep. John LeBoutillier (R-NY), who of late has taken to calling the mainstream media the "Hillary War Machine."

***

Erickson, in an e-mail to the Associated Press, was stratightforward. "I'm giving up," he wrote. "I was very passionate about this, but also very naive as far as fundraising procedures go."

The AP reports today that in a separate e-mail to Barr, Erickson wrote: "I cannot continue, in good conscience, to ask well-meaning people to donate to what they believe is a good cause, when the money will most likely be consumed in administrative and legal expenses."

Fund-raising efforts were already struggling when the group had its biggest bit of notoriety, a July segment on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which rightfully mocked the group's mission.

***

The group, in spite of occasional appearances on Fox News Channel and elsewhere, also wasn't able to make a dent in the success of the actual Clinton Presidential Center, in Little Rock, which has drawn more than 400,000 people since opening last November.

Other conservatives have bashed the center for failing to acknowledge low points of the Clinton presidency, even the conservative Washington Times acknowledged that the center "includes small alcoves dedicated to numerous themes and scandals, including Mr. Clinton’s Whitewater hearings and impeachment trial." Still others, including Morris, have made unfounded claims of financial impropriety regarding the library by the Clintons.

Should Hillary Clinton make a run for the presidency in 2008, no doubt the individual Counter Clinton-ites will find their way onto Fox News and other outlets, to promote their anger and to spread fact-challenged rumors about the Clintons.

The libraries may never see the light of day, but the movement lives on.

2 Comments:

What a pity, that these people have no accomplishments at all that they can point to and instead must continuously demonize those who disagree with them. I am sure they'd rather be bragging about the great things El Shrubbo has accomplished (as of today, none in his entire life.)

Ssshhh... don't tell the Clinton Haters out there, but my theory is that Hilary has no intention of ever running for president. Still, I bet she is having a very good laugh at the rabid right as they so earnestly waste their money and time fighting windmills. It is entertaining, and reveals volumes about how they "do things" on the right.